Second, seemingly legit, job posting that’s contacted me after the fact to download Signal/Telegram. I’m in now way going to do it, not that dumb, just wondering if this is a new trend I’m not aware of?
The scam is not downloading Signal. The scam will come later when they say “You just got the job! I will send you a check to purchase your remote work supplies”.
Do not deposit the check. At all. No matter what. It is not a legitimate check. It will never be a legitimate check. No matter how real the check looks, I guarantee that no company works like this! Do not respond to them. Block their number and ignore them for the rest of your life.
What happens is: The check is fake and you deposit it. By law, your bank is required to credit your account with the check’s value within a couple of days. HOWEVER: Just because your account gets credited the amount, doesn’t mean the check is fully processed. The scammer will tell you to buy WFH supplies from a “trusted vendor”. You are “buying” your supplies from the scammer, using the money credited to your account. Then, in 2-3 weeks, the bank will reject the check as fake. They will subtract the value from your account and you will have paid for your “supplies” using your own money. You will never receive the “supplies” or get your money back. The bank might even suspend your accound because of the fraudulent check.
A youtube channel that I follow actually released a video today about employment scams. In the section where he talks about red flags, compare them to the messages you just received. I bet you’ll notice some similarities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9g-y8wVzws
I’ve never heard of this type of scam, but out of curiosity, what if I were to take their real looking fake check to one of those many terrible check cashing places? Would it end up being the scammers trying to claw back money from the check cashing place and those 2 groups fighting while I walk away with some cash? Cuz I’d be OK with that.
What would happen is:
- You take the check and cash it (assuming they accept it at all)
- They find out it’s fake
- You have to give the money back before Rocco rings your doorbell with a baseball bat in hand
Doesn’t seem worth it to me.
In truth though, they’d never accept the check. 99% of the time, scammers send an image of a check, then ask you to print it and use mobile deposit to put in your account. That way, nobody ever touches it and realizes it’s a shitty jpeg on printer paper. It wouldn’t fool anyone IRL.
Sometimes, they might send an actual check that they stole and doctored up, but that’s too much work for a scammer most of the time.
They report you to the cops for passing bad checks, which is criminal fraud.
Imagine in the world where we do stock trades that are measured in the milliseconds and it takes 2-3 weeks to process a check. This involves 3 things: establish communication with the bank, verify the account, verify the funds are available. If yes = transfer. Unreal that we enable these scammers still.
Are checks still used somewhere or are you from the past?
Checks are still common in the USA. Not so much used by people, but businesses and corporations who transact money with people (eg insurance or banks).
They lag behind on many topics. Banking is just one in a long list.
Wow, I was born during the soviet occupation and I haven’t even seen a check. Checks haven’t been used for over 50 years here.
Funnily enough, not 2 weeks later, I ran into this. Totally felt this was going to be a scam, but was curious how/when the hook would be cast. Done over Text then Teams. Censored due to likely not real names/phone number that I don’t want to dox.
so many variations of this type of scam. From renting an apartment or home to buying a home (scammers posing as escrow).
I have zero knowledge of signal or telegram outside of knowing they exist. How would downloading the app from the App Store and sending someone a message make you vulnerable to a scam? Is it just that they could send you messages asking for personal information, or ask you for bank information to set up direct deposit and instead just use your bank info to steal your money?
Just guessing that this is to get the conversation off of Indeed, for whatever that is worth.
BTW: I use Signal to stay in touch with my far-away family. It’s pretty nice. Rumor has it that it was originally built by the CIA (the US spy organization).
That’s right. A scamming tactic is to move conversations from platforms that are monitored to platforms that are encrypted, where the scam messages won’t detected by automated scanning.
Yes, there are legit uses for encrypted chats but this move is one signal that a scam may be in progress.
Theoretically downloading those apps wouldn’t get the scammer anything they are just using those to get scott free from consequences after scam as those apps are anonymous enough if i have to guess the scam comes after contacting the person .
Everyone musing that it’s a legit offer, It’s a pretty common tactic. OP is right to be wary and seek advice. I had someone try #5 on me last week. I enjoy messing with them so I toyed with them until I got several phishy links to the play store in an effort to help me locate Telegram. In OP’s case I would assume it’s either social engineering or phishy hyperlinks. It’s almost like trading for a Shako in D2, you know the dude is probably going to tell you he has to put something in his chest real quick to make room or “accidentally” click off the trade hoping you won’t check it again.
I had this happen with a musician I follow. They did a series of live streaming pandemic shows & after one of those, the “musician” contacted me asking me to message them on Telegram.
Profile pic was a screenshot of the musicians’ facebook profile pic & the account details were sparse.
Not sure what the scam was, it wasn’t a very convincing attempt.
No idea about signal but telegram’s nice (except the part where you have to give your mobile number) i use it to sometimes stay in touch with people i know and pirate shit . And no theoretically downloading thise apps wouldn’t get the scammer anything they are just using those to get scott free from consequences after scam as those apps are anonymous enough if i have to guess the scam comes after contacting the person .
“seemingly legit”?
I don’t see how downloading Signal is directly making this a scam? It might just be that the company cares about security and privacy and isn’t comfortable sharing confidential company data over something like LinkedIn?
If the offer seems legit and you applied for it there is no way you can get scammed just by texting them on Signal.
